The theme for Tuesday's recognition of 'NO Name Calling Week' was 'Tiger's Pride Day', Community involvement. To support theme, there was an organized fundraiser to support the local Putnam Valley Fundraiser. Each student who donated won a chance to win a prize. Here are Jacqueline Brown, Taylor Simpson, and Emma Longden, winners for the day. Congratulations to all!

Recently, Putnam Valley Middle School participated in a nationwide awareness week, "Red Ribbon Week". Each day of the week teaches kids ways to say NO to Drugs. Here 8th graders Yasmine Annabi, Kayleigh Hartnett, Shannon Rogers, Carly Bartelini participate in Red Ribbon Week by wearing red to increase student awareness about how to say NO to Drugs.

Friday, October 29th was the Halloween Dance at the Middle School. Lots of fun, goolish, and very imaginative costumes were on call for the night. Here is just a sample. Included in this photo is our First Place Winner, 8th grader Danielle Lopez, a garden gnome sitting atop her mushroom.

The Middle School team of Maria Bradfield, Stephanie Cavalli, Concetta Gallello, Ed Hallisey and Laura Sherwood will be presenting the Middle School technology program at The National Middle School Association Conference in Baltimore, MD on November 5, 2010. Their session will provide the teachers, administrators and college representatives from around the country with the successes of the 1 to 1 laptop program at the Middle School. The primary focus is to share evidence of student learning through the use of technology. The conference is expected to attract nearly 10,000 middle level educators.

MS Kickoff Assembly featuring "Squeaky Clean" This event, sponsored by Arts in Education, took the students through the 1970's in a multimedia experience that featured, historical events, clothing, art, and especially the music of the 70's.

LEGO CHALLENGE: In Phase I, Students were divided into teams and each team was given a bag of Lego's. They were told to design a structure and write directions to tell someone how to recreate it. As they worked together, all conversations were all focused on how to accomplish the task. Many teams had multiple pages of instructions/directions for their structure. In Phase 2, teams were given the written directions and challenged to recreate the original structure.

BRICK CONTES: The objective was to build a cost-effective structure out of 5x8 index cards at least 8 inches high that could support a brick for 30 seconds. The only materials allowed to be used were 5x8 index cards, masking tape (cut into 2-inch pieces), rulers, a brick, and a clock. The structure also had to have a cost associated with the materials & work involved as follows: $1 per index card, $1 per piece of 2-inch tape, $1 per fold in each index card, $5 per roll in each index card. The team had to complete a cost analysis for their structure and make a prediction of how long their structure will hold the brick. 15-20 minutes building time was allowed for each structure, and the team was allowed 2 minutes to participate in the contest. After the contest, the structure was taken apart and the materials used were analyzed to verify the accuracy of the cost analysis.